The Age of Dreams
The Age of Dreams was the first age of the world of Krynn. It is shadowed in myth and song, and little is known of the earliest days of the world.
This Age began with the creation of the world, and ended when recorded history began, two millenia ago. The most comprehensive record of those days is contained in the Lifescroll of Song, compiled by the bard Quevalin.
In those days was founded the first elf realm, Silvanesti, and the construction of Kal-Thax, the great kingdom of the dwarves, was begun. The dragons of evil were the dark force in those days, making war upon the other races to enslave them. Many and horrible were the wars, but always the dragons were beaten back.
Tragedy struck the other races as well. The great Kin-Slayer War between the elves of Silvanesti and the humans of the Empire of Ergoth lasted for fifty years until a peace could be negotiated. The Swordsheath Scroll ended the Kin-Slayer war, but many elves left Silvanesti to seek new homes. They traveled west, and founded the nation of Qualinesti.
The human empire of Ergoth was the greatest kingdom of that age. Founded in ideals of peace and justice it became corrupt and oppressive. Vinas Solamnus, head of the imperial guard, led an army to the east to quash a rebellion, but found the rebellion justified. He converted to the side of the rebels, and commanded the army that won freedom for the eastern states of Ergoth. He created the Orders of the Knights of Solamnia, to protect the freedom of the people.
Ergoth was divided into independent states, and the nations of Istar, Solamnia, and Goodlund were born. The Knights of Solamnia ruled justly for many centuries, and peace settled over the land. Priests of the Gods worked great miracles, as did the three Orders of High Sorcery. It was a time of magic and hope.
Then came the Third Dragonwar, the most terrible challenge to the balance of the world. It lasted nearly three hundred years.
A Knight of Solamnia named Huma studied with a holy man and prayed to the gods for aid. His quest for aid took him to many lands. In his travels, he met a silver dragon in human form, who fell in love with him. The silver dragon gave Huma the secret of the Dragonlance. Draco Paladin, the greatest of all the Gods of Good, came down to Krynn in mortal form to aid Huma. Sir Huma drove the dragons from Krynn, and battled the Dragonqueen with the aid of the dragonlance. He drove the dragons from the world and cast them into darkness.
Thus ended the Third Dragonwar; and with the banishment of the dragons, the Age of Dreams came to an end.
The Age of Might
The Age of Might was the golden age of Krynn. It lasted nearly a thousand years, and was a time of power, glory, and achievement.
Following the banishment of the dragons, the ogres, the chosen race of Evil, overestimated their own strength and attacked the dwarves of Kal-Thax. The Ogre Wars lasted nearly a hundred years, and ended with the total defeat of the ogres and their enslavement by the other races of Krynn. although bands of renegade ogres lurked in the mountains, the mighty ogre nations were no more.
Ergoth, weakened by its fragmentation into independent states, declined as a major power. The nation of Istar took its place as the dominant political power on the continent.
The independent kender nations of Hylo and Goodlund united with Istar in a treaty known as the Kendermeld. Silvanesti joined the Empire of Istar in the Treaty of Elfmeld, under protest. Under heavy pressure from neighboring states, Kal-Thax at last agreed to the Dwarfmeld. Finally, Solamnia and Ergoth submitted to the Greatmeld. The Empire of Istar had created the first government to rule all Ansalon.
The glory that was Istar had triumphed. An unlimited future of peace was at hand. The forces of evil seemed to have vanished -- the dragons were no more, the ogres were broken, and the goblinoid races were soon reduced and enslaved before the might of Istar.
But in the 959th year of the Age of Might, it all came apart.
The Cataclysm and the Age of Despair
History falls apart at the Cataclysm, as did so much of civilization. It is known that a fiery mountain was flung from the heavens to destroy the proud city of Istar. The very face of the land was changed - mountains rose up, lands sunk into the sea.
The Gods withdrew their favor from Krynn, and, abandoned, the people of Krynn turned upon those who had been their champions. The Knights of Solamnia went into hiding in those dark days. Men turned from the worship of the old gods and sought new gods, praying to them though they granted no more miracles than did those who clung to the old ways in desperation.
Chaos reigned freely. The dwarves of Thorbardin, one of the remaining kingdoms of the dwarves, blaming the rest of Krynn for the tragedy, closed their doors of their mountain kingdom to all, including their own kinfolk. The wizard Fistandantilus, the most powerful sorcerer of the time, led the armies of hill dwarves and humans in the Dwarfgate War, besieging Thorbardin. When at last Fistandantilus's defeat seemed certain, he loosed a spell of such destructive power that both armies were destroyed.
Thusly were the gates of Thorbardin sealed, their location lost in the changed land. The elves also withdrew from contact with other races, and the forests of Qualinesti and Silvanesti both were shut to all but a few outsiders.
A variety of faiths sprung up in the years following. What was once the rolling plains of Kharolis now became known as the Abanasinian peninsula, and the plainsmen turned to ancestor worship, as did the hill dwarves of the Kharolis mountains. The peninsula dissolved into squabbling petty kingdoms. First among them was the city-state of Haven, where the Seeker movement was founded. Initially a philosophical movement seeking the old truths -- or at least new ones that worked -- it grew and turned into a political movement, and Haven became the capital of the Seeker Theocracy.
Poverty was everywhere, for much of the wealth of ancient times had vanished in the Cataclysm. gold, the precious metal of history, was all too useless for everyday living. Steel became the metal of value, for it was useful and practical. Soon, coins of steel became the basic trade material.
The elves remembered the times long past, but the short memories of humans caused the ancient world to be forgotten within a few generations. Dragons were dismissed as creatures of myth, fit only to scare children with. The idea that clerics could once work miracles was blasphemy in the Seeker lands, and people were imprisoned and sometimes burned for such beliefs.
It is now, by the reckonings of the historians of the great city-state of Palanthas to the north, 351 years since the Cataclysm shattered Krynn. Rumors of war come from the north, but such has not yet reached Abanasinia. Barring bandits, ogres, and the like, there is relative calm.
The calm will not last long.
DMing done by Pip